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Dow Today: Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Higher

Editor's Note: TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model.

The
Dow Jones Industrial Average (
^DJI) is trading up 230 points (+1.8%) at 13,277 as of Thursday, Sep 6, 2012, 11:35 a.m. ET. During this time, 298.2 million shares of the 30 Dow components have changed hands vs. an average daily trading volume of 586.8 million. The NYSE advances/declines ratio sits at 2,383 issues advancing vs. 529 declining with 102 unchanged.

The Dow component leading the way higher looks to be
Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq:
MSFT), which is sporting an 82-cent gain (+2.7%) bringing the stock to $31.21. This single gain is lifting the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 6.21 points or roughly accounting for 2.7% of the Dow's overall gain. Volume for Microsoft Corporation currently sits at 23.4 million shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 37.7 million shares.

Microsoft Corporation has a market cap of $254.73 billion and is part of the
technology sector and
computer software & services industry. Shares are up 17% year to date as of Wednesday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 2.6%.

Microsoft Corporation develops, licenses, and supports a range of software products and services; and designs and sells hardware worldwide. The company has a P/E ratio of 15.2, equal to the average computer software & services industry P/E ratio and below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7.

TheStreet Ratings rates Microsoft Corporation as a
buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, reasonable valuation levels, good cash flow from operations and solid stock price performance. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had sub par growth in net income.